Something you won't see in MNA

Nobel laureates urge UN to act on Suu Kyi's plight
The Nation/27.6.95
Agence France-Presse
SAN FRANCISCO- Nobel Peace Prize laureates appealed on Sunday for
UN action on the release of Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi,
calling her plight "political oppression disguised as criminal
detention."
In a statement issued for the UN 50th anniversary ceremonies, 11
laureates called for freedom for the Burmese leader, another
peace laureate who has been under house arrest for six years.
Two of the Nobel laureates present for the ceremonies in San
Francisco went further in criticizing Burma's military regime,
and one - South Africa Archbishop Desmond Tutu - called for UN
sanctions on Rangoon.
As we write, thousands of people are currently incarcerated or
detained as political prisoners, among them our sister Nobel
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi," the joint statement said.
"She has endured sic long years solitary detention without trial
at the hands of Burma's military regime. There is no signed at
all for her release. We resolutely oppose political oppression
disguised as criminal detention."
The laureates call on the world community working through the
United Nations to help obtain freedom for prisoners of
conscience, including Aung San Suu Kyi.
Tutu, in a statement to a forum here for the UN anniversary,
called for sanctions to be imposed on Burma and other countries
with serious human rights violations.
"Why should we not act decisively ... in a case of Burma, which
still holds our sister laureate under house arrest?" he asked.
Betty Williams, a 1976 Nobel Laureate present for the ceremony,
also had harsh words for the Burmese military regime, and
referred to Aung San Suu Kyi as " my beloved sister".
"The people of Burma -not Myanmar, there is no Myanmar- loved
Aung San Suu Kyi." Williams said. "Release her from terror she
lives through every day."
Williams addressed another Nobel laureate at the event- Polish
President Lech Walesa-appealing for Poland to stop supplying
weapons to the Rangoon regime.
"I beg your government not to supply them with military
hardware," she said, and added a similar appeal to South Africa.
Williams, Tutu, walesa and former Costa Rican president Oscar
Arias were present for the event. Also signing the statement were
Nobel laureates Norman Borlaug, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Adolfo
Perez Esquivel, Elie Wiesel , Mikhail Gorbachev, Shimon Peres and
Yitzhak Rabin.